In the Star Wars universe, before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Jedi acted as judge, jury, and executioner for much of the galaxy. Governed by a council of 12 people stationed in Coruscant, this group of warriors are inducted into the order at a young age when a child is shown to be particularly adept with The Force. While the prequel trilogy went to great lengths to establish the Jedi as impartial, thorough, and intelligent, there are still plenty of aspects of the Jedi that come across as questionable at best. If the series ever returns to the Republic Era of the Star Wars universe, it’s going to have to reconcile with these aspects of the Jedi.
While the Jedi still existed, they considered themselves independent from the squabbles of the rest of the galaxy and instead devoted their lives to keeping peace and order throughout the galaxy. While the Jedi had largely restricted themselves to the role of mediators in conflicts and worked towards peaceful solutions, they were still the de facto police of the galaxy, imbued with extraordinary abilities that made them formidable opponents in battle.
Jedi training involved teaching a pupil how to use their attunement with The Force in a variety of ways that seemed to increase with each subsequent story in the franchise. These abilities included but were not limited to telekinesis, super-jumping, prognostication, lightning-fast reflexes, and the ability to manipulate one’s thoughts. After completing training, Jedi are instructed to build their lightsaber and then strike out into the galaxy and solve problems.
The process of climbing the ranks of the Jedi in order to be given the galactic equivalent of a gun and a badge (the lightsaber serving as both) involved a degree of indoctrination in the Jedi beliefs. In order to maintain their impartiality and calm demeanor, the Jedi are expected to completely void themselves of any emotions, human connections emotional or otherwise, and desires.
While this makes sense in theory, repressing these sorts of things is psychologically damaging to an individual and often causes considerable harm. While it can be reasonably explained that certain alien races don’t have to deal with these mental aspects quite like a human does, it is shown throughout the series that emotions like love and desire are pretty universal among all species in the galaxy. Expecting people to completely push down these natural biological responses from a creatures’ nervous system is not only asking for trouble but is also a form of emotional abuse. Forcing its initiates to sever all outside connections with people is also a tactic frequently used by cults to prevent members from leaving.
Clearly, this method doesn’t work all that well either, as the Jedi are shown to be struggling with the rising influence of the Sith for thousands of years. The dichotomy between the Sith and the Jedi is blatantly portrayed as “Sith bad, Jedi good” throughout the series what with all the murder the Sith are always doing, but it is also shown that what leads many to stray from the Jedi to the Sith are the Jedi’s unwillingness to allow themselves to feel love for somebody else. While never explicitly stated in the series, the Jedi’s own rigidity in their code of mental repression is a factor that can drive a fledgling Jedi to the Dark Side. When Anakin Skywalker was worried about Padmé Amidala because he had a vision of her dying, he was not able to seek guidance from the Jedi Council because they forbade relationships. The entire Galactic Civil War could have been avoided if Anakin had been able to confide in this group of wise problem-solvers about what he was struggling with.
Anakin was a special case, however, as the Jedi Council originally barred him from learning the ways of The Force because he was too old. This, however, then brings up the next horrifying aspect of The Jedi. To maintain their numbers, the Jedi have to abduct children. There is no other way since they are not allowed to have relationships and thus are not able to have Jedi children. The Jedi, as a religious order, jet-sets around the galaxy and abducts children from their loving families. The films never reveal what this process is like, either. Are the families compensated? Are they left devastated knowing they gave up their own child to a mysterious order of robed figures with weapons? Do the families have a choice? Are these children born from emotionless flings of previous Jedi passing through the system?
This practice can’t just be hand-waved away as charity, either, as The Jedi Order doesn’t just take in any child. If a Jedi finds an orphan struggling to survive on a desert planet, they can’t just bring it home. They have to check the child’s midi-chlorian count first. If this starving orphan desert planet child doesn’t have adequate midi-chlorians, the Jedi response would be to essentially leave the child there to die, as established in The Phantom Menace since Qui-Gon Jinn’s rescuing of Anakin from literal slavery is frowned upon. After all, sympathy is an emotion, and emotion is strictly forbidden among the Jedi.
This is, perhaps, the crux of the argument against the Jedi Order’s policies. Logic is a great basis for a lot of decision-making, but it shouldn’t be the only factor. The purely logical solution to a problem can also be inhumane. Subjecting an entire galaxy to decision-making based purely on logic is a recipe for failure, especially considering that Anakin’s humanity and love for his son are what ultimately resulted in him throwing Palpatine into the pit and rescuing the galaxy at the end of Return of the Jedi.
So, The Jedi Order essentially abducts children across the galaxy to create a faction of space cops that (ideally) operate without any humanity and have extraordinary superpowers like mind control, all while armed with one of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy and having a license to kill. When condensed to the essentials like that, it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture, and that’s without delving even deeper into the twisted implications of the mind control and the fact that a person’s midi-chlorian count is a result of genetics.
Disney no doubt has plans to inundate people with Star Wars content until there are no more dollar bills to be wrung out from the property, which means that people have not seen the last of the Jedi. Will any future Star Wars projects examine the ramifications of these aspects of the Jedi? Will somebody in that galaxy far, far away ever ask “Is it right for us to be controlling somebody’s mind?” It remains to be seen, but it’s going to be a difficult subject to dance around considering the immense amount of harm The Jedi Order has inadvertently caused their universe.
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